Mayor approaches police over NSSCDCL issues
| Date :23-Jun-2020 |
Staff Reporter :
Mayor Sandip Joshi took one more step in the ongoing tug of war with Municipal Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe by approaching city police with a criminal complaint against him and two others regarding decisions pertaining to Nagpur Smart and Sustainable City Development Corporation Limited (NSSCDCL). Incidentally, move on part of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) comes on the eve of general body meeting of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) slated for Tuesday.
Addressing mediapersons on Monday at NMC's Standing Committee Hall, Civil Lines, Joshi said they have submitted the complaint on basis of legal opinion and are seeking registration of criminal complaint against Mundhe. The complaint by Mayor and Sandeep Jadhav, Ruling Party Leader, was made in capacity as Directors of NSSCDCL to Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone-II, Vinita Sahu, at Sadar police station. Referring to talks with DCP Sahu, Joshi said that she said the complaint against Mundhe, Mona Thakur, Chief Finance Officer, and Amruta Deshkar, Accounts Officer, would be referred to Economic Offences Wing (EoW), Crime Branch, for further investigations as it pertains to financial transactions. During the press conference, Joshi claimed Mundhe's appointment as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) was never done and hence the decision takes by latter were blatantly illegal.
Claiming that as per rules, CEO appointment has to be ratified by Board of Directors and till date such meeting was not held. Similarly, the decision about authorising CEO to handle bank accounts of Company were illegal as there was never such authorisation from Board of Directors. Therefore financial dealings by Mundhe, CFO and Accountant were thus blatant illegality, Mayor claimed further. Thus, we two Directors demanded registration of offence under secs. 406, 409, 420, 464, 465, 468 and 471 of IPC R/w sec. 447 of Companies Act for illegalities against the three.
Without attributing anything, Mayor pointed out that the trio released payments to two firms, Rs. 20 crores to M/s Unifab Infra Private Project Limited and Rs. 18 crores to Shapoorji Pallonji and Company Ltd. after breaking the FD in Bank of Maharashtra without authority. Also without authorisation about 15 staffers of NSSCDCL were fired by Mundhe during lockdown period as he intends to disband the SPV that was set-up for development of city. To a question about six months delay in claiming illegality, Mayor defence was that they learnt about these matters only recently. For nearly six months we were kept in dark about these decisions. Deputy Mayor Manisha Kothe, Vijay Zalke, Chairperson, Standing Committee, Sandeep Jadhav, Ruling Party Leader, Narendra Borkar, Chairperson, Transport Committee, Ravindra alias Chotu Borkar, Adv. Dharampal Meshram, Varsha Thakre, Divya Dhurde, Pradeep Pohane, all corporators, and others were also present at the press conference.
Mundhe clears the air
Staff Reporter
Usually reluctant to join any controversy, Municipal Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe, however, was quite frank in explaining the correct perspective and lobbed the ball back in Mayor’s court. Responding to queries from mediapersons later on Monday evening, Mundhe said Mayor and other Directors have the explaining to do as they have indulged in illegality. “Any dispute about matter relating to Nagpur Smart and Sustainable City Development Corporation Limited (NSSCDCL) as per rule has to first discussed in the meeting of Board of Directors and I presume the leaders must be knowing this basic detail,” he said. Since allegation is being made against company officials in public domain, Mundhe said in fact they are indulging in illegal act. Further as to matter of CEO, Mundhe questioned delay on part of Mayor and others from ruling party in raising the issue. “I assumed charge of CEO of NSSCDCL on February 11, 2020, so why all the hullabaloo now after six months," the Municipal Commissioner contended while responding to a querry during the media interaction at his office in New Administrative Complex, Civil Lines. He also flashed the resignation letter of first CEO of NSSCDCL, Ramnath Sonawane, wherein the company Chairman, Praveen Pardeshi, has written that the charge be handed over to Municipal Commissioner. Thus the allegation on part of Mayor about CEO vis-a-vis my decision stands null and void. Similarly, in a Government company the position of Director is ex-officio and it does not need any prior authorisation from Board of Directors, Mundhe claimed. So in short, my position as Director, NSSCDCL, is in capacity as Municipal Commissioner and that of Mayor and others are also similar in nature. Such arrangement works in all the Government companies and the contention of Mayor about resolution from Board of Directors is right but applicable in private companies. Mundhe further said appointment of Mona Thakur as CFO was as per Board's resolution so where is the illegality as being claimed by Mayor. So the handling of account by CFO was perfectly as per the rules and there is nothing illegal of no act of illegality was done anywhere. About the release of payment to two contractors, Municipal Commissioner said the work contract to the two parties was not awarded in his tenure in NSSCDCL and the payment was released for the work done by them so where is the illegality in it, he questioned. Similarly, the decision about scrapping Transfer Station was done in consultation with Chairman. But when asked about opinion by Company Secretary that Municipal Commissioner cannot be Acting CEO, Mundhe said she is one who should explain it and my stance is firm.